BOYS ON FARMS

Grey River Argus, 11 January 1943, Page 3

BOYS ON FARMS

RESPONSE IN NORTH ISLAND.

WELLINGTON, Jan., 4

After a slow start, for which many factors were responsible, 158 boys from Wellington and Hutt Valley schools have now been placed on farms, where they will work during the holidays, or, by special arrangement, until the end of February. The secretary of the Wellington Government Youth Centre, Mr S. H. Petersen, still has 26 farm vacancies to fill, but it now looks, he says, as if boys will not be obtainable for them. Originally 244 boys sought holiday farm, jobs, but, as a result of delay in receipt of applications in Wellington, many have taken city employment or made other arrangements.

Most of the 158 bays have already arrived at the farms, where they are to work, most of them in/ the northern part of the North Island, from Te Kuiti to Helensville, others in Taranaki and Manawatu. Arrangements were made by the youth Centre that all boys should be met on their arrival by train or service car.

In the case of boys going to the Auckland district, the Government advances a second-class return fare, and, if the boy stays a month, claims from the farmer an amount equivalent to the concession return fare from Auckland to the farm. In the case of boys going to southern districts, the boy pays his own fare, 40 .per cent., of ordinary adult rates, which is refunded to him by the farmer if he stays on the farm a month or longer.

Because of calls for military service, Mr. Petersen says, the boys engaged under the scheme this year are not, as a whole, as old or as physically strong as those who have been available in the past.